The Beatles made a huge hit singing “Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away”. And others waxed poetic about how “Yesterday’s gone” and how they remember “Yesterday when I was young” and so on.

Yesterday’s Hold

The reason “yesterday” has such a hold on people’s lives is that we all carry the past into the present and beyond that into the future. Yesterday is the time we sowed certain things into our lives and today we reap the harvest. So yesterday is a powerful component of ‘today’ and it will still be making its presence felt when we get to tomorrow.

The Catholic Church teaches people to go to confession to deal with the sins of yesterday. Someone sneered at the habit of some who sin during the week and look for forgiveness in the confessional on the weekend. They said it was like sowing wild oats all week and then praying for a crop failure.

The Hindu faith respects the baggage of yesterday as karma, which we carry not only through this life, but into future lives which Hindus believe they will face. Gautama Buddha, who rejected the Hindu teaching of reincarnation, went so far as to say that we cannot remove our Karma even in a thousand lifetimes.

Yesterday’s Debris

Here are just a few of the things we bring with from yesterday, even though yesterday is gone.

We bring our disappointments from yesterday. We face disappointments with others, such as our parents and family. But we also face disappointments with ourselves.

We bring our broken relationships from yesterday. Once we have offended someone else or they have offended us that damage remains, often throughout life. Family reunions and community life become tinged with the hurt and offence that we feel toward others and they feel toward us.

We bring our compromises from yesterday. Once we have compromised our values and character that becomes a weak spot for us from that time on.

We bring our slaveries from yesterday. When we give in to sin, such as anger, pride, jealousy or lust, that thing enslaves us and it controls us throughout our lives.

Today’s Harvest

It is also true, as the Bible teaches, that our actions and choices involve us sowing seeds in our lives. A seed not only remains, but it germinates and produces a whole crop. So when we sow something into our life, we are setting up a harvest in the future.

Today’s harvest is filled with the fruit of the things we planted yesterday. If we planted selfishness, pride, anger, greed, violence, self-pity, wilfulness, addiction, lies or other evil things, we will have an evil harvest today.

If we planted forgiveness, faith, love, trust, humility and the fear of God then we will have a much better harvest today than others might have.

Yesterday is not ‘Gone’

While the songs might say, “yesterday’s gone” it isn’t true. Yesterday has passed, but it has not ‘gone’. Yesterday lives with you today.

Transforming Yesterday

“You can’t go back in time” is one way to look at it. “What’s done is done!” might be your way of dismissing the past. But there are powerful ways of unlocking the past and transforming yesterday. Let me briefly outline two of them.

Confession of Sin is a powerful way to unlock and transform yesterday. When you repent of the choices you made in the past God is able to set you free from the debris and consequences of those choices in the present. You can actually get a crop failure, even though you sowed lots of wild oats.

God can go back in time. While you are stuck in the time-space continuum, God exists outside of time. So He is able to go back to your past and make Himself present, bringing healing to things that are part of your yesterday that has ‘gone’ from you.

A Testimony

A friend of mine named Malcolm visited a lady who had chronic problems. When he prayed for her she had a vision of a baby crying in a cot. She realised that she was seeing herself as a tiny baby. She sensed the extreme distress of the baby and it connected with the pain that kept surfacing in her life.

A spirit of intercession came on Mal and he began to weep for her. As he did she saw in her vision that the door to the baby’s room opened and Jesus walked in. Jesus lifted the baby into His arms and as He did the woman felt all her pain and torment drain from her life.

It was as if Jesus was able to go back in time to the entry point of the woman’s troubles and resolve them, even though that was now many years past.

Saying Good-bye to Yesterday

If yesterday has brought its bad baggage with it into your today then be encouraged to say “Good-bye” to that stuff. You can remove it forever by confession and by asking the Lord to unlock and heal your past.

The Steps to Release, which I have written about in my books and in other posts, will be helpful in this process.

I want you to live in the freedom with which Christ has made you free. I want you to be able to say, in all reality, that Yesterday is Gone! Keep all that is good from yesterday and unlock and remove all that is bad. Once you’ve said “Good-bye” to yesterday’s rubbish you will have an even better future to look forward to.

There is an awesome barrier that stands between people and God. But it is not what you think! So let’s take a look at barriers and glass ceilings.

In various professions, social circles and communities there are hidden barriers. Entry to the inner circle or just any entry at all can be frustrated by some form of secret practice. The “in” group have their ways and means of preserving their place and blocking others who they don’t want in their area of influence.

In some professions women find it hard to gain entry. I know of workplaces where only people of particular sexual orientation end up being employed. Ben Stein’s recent doco, “Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed”, exposes the significant barrier thrown up against anyone who questions the Evolutionary dogma. The British BBC TV comedy series, “Yes Minister”, produced in the early 1980’s, celebrates the collusion of Public Servants in frustrating the wishes and intentions of the elected government minister.

In the case of secret societies or in places where secret agreements operate processes are put in place to take power away from people and to exclude people.

At a more basic level, individuals can face barriers which belong just to them. A problem child in a class can so frustrate their teacher that the teacher takes a set against them. The same could happen within a family toward someone who causes shame or hurt. And so it goes.

We are all accustomed to limitations and barriers, glass ceilings, obstacles and hurdles, and even impenetrable prohibitions. So, what are the barriers that block our approach to God?

Now an evangelical may be quick to say, “Sin!” Sin is a barrier, and the Bible says so.

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2

But, I protest, sin is not a barrier to our approaching God. Sin is the very reason why we need to approach Him! So what then is the barrier?

What stops people from finding God’s grace? What stops people from receiving salvation? What blocks people from being transformed by His power? Is it their past life? Is it their theology? Is it the denomination they are connected with or the preacher they listen to? Is it their level of selfishness? Or is it hereditary?

What is it that God sees which causes Him to frustrate man’s approach to Him? What causes God to put up barriers and obstacles in man’s way? Why does God not have a completely open door, welcoming all comers freely, just the way they are?

Hmmmmm ?

The answer is that there is NO BARRIER! God has not put up barriers to man’s approach. God does not try to frustrate man’s search for Him. God has a completely open door, welcoming all comers freely, just the way they are!

The barrier is not put there by God. The barrier is put there by man!

The barrier to God is in the heart of man. It is man’s rejection of God and God’s terms that creates a barrier between man and God. Any man, woman or child can come freely to God, whenever they choose to. They can approach God and accept His salvation and His grace, on His terms.

When people reject God’s salvation, God’s grace and God’s open offer for their lives a barrier suddenly appears between them and God. God has not changed and God has not withdrawn all of His blessings. Man blocks himself from receiving them because of his rejection of God’s open offer.

So, do you sense a barrier between yourself and God? Do you think God has placed obstacles in your way? Look again. The obstacles are in your heart, not in God’s hand. Man’s rejection of God is the obstacle, not God’s rejection of man.